Out Of Time
by SpeakOutLoudX
Summary: After what seems to be a routine misson, the Enterprise seems to be under the control of someone or something else. With the ship quickly spiralling out of control on a collision course with StarBase 6, can Kirk and his able crew firgure it out before they run out of time?
1. Chapter 1

"Sulu tell me you have contact with the ship!" Kirk cried as he broke through the vines and into a clearing were Sulu was knelt on the ground, tapping the screen of his scanner.

"Not quite captain, comms still down," Sulu replied as he frantically pressed the buttons on his comm, trying to re-establish any form of communication with the Enterprise. "It would help if we didn't keep moving!"

A few laser shots, came trough the vines from the direction that Kirk had come from.

"That is the reason we are still moving! Come on!" Kirk grabbed Sulu by the shoulder of his yellow shirt and dragged him into the foliage on the other side of the clearing. The lasers continued to fire around the pair as they continued to break through the trees. Sulu carried on pressing the scanner, but he still had nothing.

"Captain, we still have no contact with the ship, and we need to get out of here quick! They cannot know where we come from!"

"Yes thank you Mr Sulu!"

"Captain, we have you in range. Ready to launch as soon as you are on board," Spock's voice sounded through the air, crackling and quiet, but still distinguishable. Kirk paused for a moment and panted, shouting to what seemed to be thin air.

"Mr Spock! I don't think I've ever been so glad to hear your voice!"

"An odd sentiment captain. Did you complete the mission, did you fix the computer?" the crackling voice came again.

"Not got time to talk right now Spock... Sulu look out!" Kirk cried as he set his phaser on target, Sulu ducked and the shot was fired.

"Guess I don't need to tell you we have communication again." Sulu gasped, standing upright again. Kirk gave a half hearted smile before being flown to the floor by a laser blast. It wasn't enough to kill him or knock him out, but it was enough to make him stagger in pain as he clutched to Sulu who was trying to pull him into the cover of trees.

"Beam us up now!" Sulu yelled into his comm. The swirls started around them, a clear indication that they were in the process of being beamed aboard the Enterprise. They only narrowly missed the laser beams as they disappeared up to the ship.

Spock stood in the transporter room with McCoy and a medical team waiting for the Captain and Sulu to return. As soon as the bashed up pair were dragged off the transporter deck they were whisked off to MedBay. Kirk as usual had tried to insist that he was fine, just a bit bruised, but McCoy had anticipated this and had a hypo full of anesthetic ready for him.

As soon as Kirk had come back round and was cleared for duty by McCoy, he made his way to the bridge. The quiet serenity of the turbo lift was the absolute opposite of what the atmosphere on the bridge was like. Buttons were being pressed left right and centre and crewmen were going from one side to the other, their pace hastened. The room itself seemed to buzz with energy as the bridge crew operated their stations. The hectic movement on the bridge meant that nobody noticed the strange girl that stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall, tossing an apple between her hands. As the crew began to settle, feeling better now that the captain was on the bridge again. She smiled, took and bite of the apple. Spock saw her, fascinated by what he was seeing, but looked away as he heard the captain call him, but when he looked back the strange figure had gone. Spock raised an eyebrow as he turned to his captain.

"Talk to me Spock," Kirk said as they made the seamless change from Spock sitting in the Captain's chair to Kirk.

"Captain, the ship is in a stable orbit around the planet..."

'Well let's get out of orbit, and get back on course then."

"That is precisely the issue, Captain, can not move out of orbit!"

Kirk looked to Spock with a hint of confusion, he pressed the comm button on his chair and called engineering.

"Scotty, why aren't we moving?"

"Err, a few moments captain..." came the thick Scottish accent and with that the transmission was cut. Kirk cured his hand into a fist and attempted to calm himself down. The lights on the bridge cut short and the whole crew were thrust forward. The ship dipped slightly as it fell out of orbit, then, when she had stabilised, the ship lifted out of orbit and continued on her course. Steadying themselves with whatever they could the crew tried to return to normal duty as light slowly flooded the room again.

"We should be out of orbit now sir," Scotty's voice filled the room. Kirk looked to Spock for confirmation, who replied with a short nod.

"Mr Scott pease report to the bridge," Kirk said through the comm. It only took a few moments for Scotty to appear on the bridge, looking particularly pleased.

"What was that Scotty?" Kirk asked as he faced his chief engineer.

"Reset of systems sir, like an old fashioned computing system," Scotty replied, proud of himself for thinking of the idea.

"Care to explain why you just suddenly turned the whole ship off whilst in deep space?"

"Well we couldn't break free of the orbit sir, and the computers weren't responding. I had read somewhere that people used to restart computers when they weren't responding properly." Kirk gave him a small smile before returning to post. Scotty followed and leant over the arm of the captain's chair.

"Admit it, that was pretty good Jim," Scotty said, a smile growing on his face.

"I'm a bit busy Scotty..." Kirk said in almost a whisper, trying to push Scotty away from him.

"Go on, say it!" Scotty replied nudging Kirk's arm. The two started bickering, so much so that neither of them noticed Spock's persistent attempts to capture his captain's attention.

"CAPTAIN!" Spock shouted so loud that the entire crew stopped to see what the commotion was. Kirk looked around to Spock, the crew saw that the expression on his face was not one to mess with so returned to their duties promptly, but still listened to what was being said.

"What was that Spock?" Kirk said, anger slightly tinting his voice.

"I'm sorry captain but as you didn't acknowledge when I first tried to get your attention I was surprised. Then I saw you and Mr Scott bickering over something that hardly seems relevant..."

"Forget I asked Spock," Kirk said, cutting off his first officer, "What did you want to tell me?"

"Sir?" Asked Spock confused.

"Well I assumed, Mr Spock, that since you wanted my attention, you had something you wished to tell me..." Spock spotted the impossible child again, stumbling towards the turbolift. She gave him a strained smirk before disappearing behind the door.

"Excuse me captain," Spock said as he headed towards the lift, not waiting to be dismissed by Kirk.

"What an odd fellow," Scotty said looking in the direction Spock went.

Upon reaching the turbolift Spock directed it to the deck where MedBay was, expecting to see the child there as it was the only logical option Spock could think of.

"Spock what do I owe the pleasure, your physical isn't for another 3 weeks. And to be honest I need the time refresh myself on Vulcan physiology," McCoy joked as he saw the Vulcan

"Doctor, has a child of around sixteen human years come this way? She has blond curly hair and was about so tall?" Spock asked gesturing to a height just shy of his shoulders. McCoy thought for a moment before giving Spock a weird look.

"Mr Spock there has been no child in here, besides the youngest person on board this ship is Mr Chekov, and even he is 21 now, it was his birthday last week, don't you remember? Anyway, Mr Spock, I thought that no one was allowed on a star ship until they were 18! Of course Chekov was an exception to this rule..."

"Doctor have you seen her or not?" Interrupted Spock, growing tired of McCoy's ramblings. McCoy straightened up at Spock's brashness.

"No, why would she come her anyway?"

"She seemed injured, and the only logical course of action was to come here,"

"You and your bloody logic, Spock. Did it occur to your Vulcan mind that if she isn't suppose to be aboard the ship she won't come here for fear of being found out?" McCoy said as he filled a hypo of anesthetic ready for his patient who was stirring in pain. Spock stood there pondering what McCoy had suggested, before exiting, muttering something about the idea being 'fascinating', McCoy rolled his eyes as he went to see his patients.

When Spock returned to the bridge everything was back to running smoothly so he went straight to his station. He ran a scan of the ship to see if he could locate the child he saw, it came up with nothing. All 430 crew members but no child.

"Fascinating," he said under his breathe as he st back in his chair, searching for the next logical step

Down in engineering, the computer systems were getting back up to full power.

"Captain, the computers are now at full capacity again, ready for warp on your command," Scotty said, he waited for Kirk's reply before going to polish some piece of mechanical engineering, he was very particular about how his machinery looked and behaved. The girl appeared from around the corner, propping herself up on the computer deck, she gave looked around, making sure the coast was clear, before pressing a few of the buttons. The power from the computers surged through her as she regained her strength, she smiled as she faded slightly as she smiled, feeling more powerful, before completely disappearing into the computer systems...


	2. Chapter 2

_** Captain's log. Stardate 2333.6. After a few minor technical issues The Enterprise is on course to dock at StarBase 6 where She will undergo necessary maintenance before starting Her next 3 year mission**_.

"Captain. The science computer seems to have a mind of it's own. I know that is a highly illogical suggestion but I cannot seem to find another way of explaining it. Or come up with a more suited, more logical conclusion," Spock said in his nonchalant tone with just a hint of curiosity tinting his voice. Kirk looked over to his first officer in confusion. He started to make his way over to the station, though he didn't know what good that would do as he knew very little about the science station.

"What?"

"Captain, I'm getting so much disturbance that I can't make out any communications between us and the StarBase and In-Ship communications as well," Uhura said as she tried a few 'communications tricks' to break through the white noise that was interfering. Kirk looked round to Uhura then across the bridge.

"What is going on? Scotty? Mr Scott? Mr Scott come in..."

"Captain In-Ship communications are down,"

"Urgh, we'll just have to go down Mr Spock. Sulu you have the comm," Sulu nodded, "For what good it will do you..." Kirk muttered under his breath as he and Spock made their way to the TurboLift. The lift coughed and spluttered for a few moments before bursting into life. Kirk gave Spock a curious look whilst directing the lift to Engineering.

Engineering seemed so peaceful, no-one was rushing back and forth, there was no panicked voices or hysterical atmosphere. Instead it was calm, the perfect working environment. Kirk spotted Scotty on the other side of the WarpCore, perfectly content with how his department was running. He was happily humming to himself, tapping in technical equations.

"Hello Capt'in, how lovely of you to join us down here. What did we do to deserve this wee pleasure?" Scotty asked, holding his hands behind his back, a huge grin plastered on his face. When looking at the Captain, however, he was fairly certain that it wasn't a social call, especially with Mr Spock's grave facial expression appearing behind Kirk. "Ahh... I see... is there something wrong? Are you not happy with how I run things? I am being dismissed as soon as we get to StarBase 6? Capt'in, please... I'm sure we can work it out, that mishap with Kahn's torpedos..." Scotty rambled, his accent getting thicker as he spoke.

"Scotty!" Kirk interrupted, "you're not getting fired! Why would you think, that you're the best engineer in the Fleet!" Scotty's cheeks flooded red, partly from the embarrassment at his outburst, and partly from his bashfulness of the compliment given to him.

"Aww, Capt'in..."

"This is not a social visit Mr Scott," Spock said, trying to regain some severity about the situation.

"Right...yes...of course. Scotty what us happening to the ships computers?" Kirk asked but only got a confused look in return. Scotty looked round him, glancing over the computer screens, he took a PADD from a near by officer, searched a few databases, but found nothing.

"Capt'in, I'm sorry, I can find nothing wrong with the computers. All of engineering seems to be working perfec'ly,"

"Then how do you explain..." Kirk started but was pushed aside by Spock, trying to get to the computers. Kirk opened his mouth to protest, but realised it would be useless. He did, however notice a flash of blonde hair disappear round a corner as soon as he looked in that direction. He slowly made his way over, leaving in Spock and Scotty arguing over the computers, wondering why any member of his crew would hide from him. He found no-one. Kirk turned back on himself, to see the person, or rather child, standing in front of him. Spock and Scotty had also appeared at the end of the corridor.

"Captain, I suggest..." Spock stated.

"Catain? So you're the legendary Captain Kirk, I read about you in a computer file some where..." the girl interrupted, "Yes, here it is. Kirk, James T. Captain of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. Well then, why don't we play A game captain? If you can figure out what I am, since your equally as legendary First Officer Spock is having so much trouble, then... I will... turn your air filtration system back on. You've got 30 minutes. Good luck" She gave a cheeky wave before disappearing into thin air again. Kirk grew in anger as he lunged across to wear she was stood but she was one before he got there.

"Where is she!" Kirk shouted.

"Captain, might I suggest that we use the oxygen we have to find her, otherwise it will be a terrible misuse of resources," Spock spoke calmly. Kirk glared at him and headed towards the turbolift. Spock followed knowing how his captain's temper gets the best of him sometimes. Scotty just stood there, bewildered and confused.

"Mr Scott, try to get the system running again!" Kirk shouted as the TurboLift closed it's doors. Scotty snapped out of his trance and started mumbling as he tried getting the air system running again.


End file.
